In a significant decision on paid parental leave, a FWC presidential member has ordered a State-owned public transport provider to backpay a bus driver who claimed to be the primary carer of his newborn son while his wife recovered from an emergency caesarean section.
The federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association, Steve Purvinas, has dropped his court case against members of his executive after they shelved moves to curtail his role.
In a judgment that casts a harsh light on agreement drafting, a Federal Court majority has described crucial elements of a multinational paint company's since superseded deals as a "jumble of random terms", before quashing a finding that six misclassified warehouse workers had been underpaid.
The FAAA has extended the tentacles of its SJSP test case against Qantas labour suppliers, bringing an application against a third labour hire company, while the parallel test case against BHP Coal has been pushed back after unions sought extra time for their submissions.
The FWC is seeking feedback on a suite of resources, including video and animated explainers, about its new functions for regulated workers and businesses in the gig economy and road transport industries.
The FWC has warned employers against giving "generic and blanket HR answers" when they provide their "reasonable business grounds" for knocking back flexibility requests, before ultimately rejecting a bid from a worker with challenging caring responsibilities to continue working entirely from home.
The Federal Court has again intervened to turn down the heat in a continuing bargaining stoush between the CFMEU and the head contractor for Queensland's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, giving the union until Thursday to challenge orders imposing 15-metre no-go zones around sites and prohibiting the filming of workers crossing picket lines.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has appointed former Justice Department secretary Greg Wilson to examine the State's construction sector and help eradicate its "rotten culture", including by boosting its ability to weed out criminal activity and protect whistleblowers.
A transport company sacked a manager when it failed to specify it would not pay out his notice period if he accepted an offer to leave early following his resignation, the FWC has found.
Interested parties have two weeks to provide feedback on the FWC's approach to implementing new powers concerning right to disconnect stop orders and disputes, including a proposal to initially send all such applications to a full bench.
